First of all, congratulations on your choice of character. Before anything else, you should know that the Wizard-class by nature is not a soloing class. However, you will always have an easy time finding a party for a dungeon, as you can pick any of the other 5 classes and simply run in. The same applies for grinding on maps, where a Wizard is always a bonus to have in party. The wizard is first and foremost, a support class (yes, I've said it), and this can be easily seen by the balance of buffs that he has : 4 Self buffs versus 7 Party buffs. Your role as a Wizard is to keep the tankers alive, while at the same time dishing out damage from a safe distance. Wizards will make use of the Martialset (which provides the highest defense rate in-game) and Orb-weaponry (highest magic) in order to achieve their goals.

Pro's and Con's of playing a Wizard

PRO:* Highest mobility offers awesome scouting abilities, making you invaluable in boss hunts and harassment* Insane Area of Effect while in BM2 as well as highest damage output with lowest gear* Huge area stuns will make you an invaluable grinding partner, providing safety to the other party members* Numerous party buffs to keep your companions alive and kicking. They will want you in their party.* Raise Spirit buff which accelerates the Spirit Point regeneration, allowing for much faster dungeoning and BattleModes recharging* Best protective buff for War areas, Spirit Intension, which can reduce damage and chance of scoring a critical strike from an enemy* Extreme killing machine in Tierra Gloriosa* You cannot get manafrozen

CON:* Lowest defense in-game will mean that with moderate gear you will barely reach 1000 def while in BattleMode* Lowest HP and HP gain will turn you into a quick kill unless you are extremely focused on the action* No PVE skill (orange skills) means that your damage on mobs will never match a melee class on the same skill rank (for example on GMaster skill damage output)* No active protection against stuns / knockdowns / knockbacks / unable to move make you vulnerable to such attacks

Basic ideas of playing a Wizard

1. Party leaderYou are the party leader, the SP carrier. It is your responsibility to keep the party alive while they have SP on, it is your responsibility to keep them buffed and protected with AoE stun. You will decide the outcome of a dungeon by properly or improperly keeping your party buffed. A good wizard must know when to buff, what to buff, why to buff and most importantly, a good wizard will always keep track of party member buffs and debuffs, even if he cannot see them. This is vital, as you will create your strategy based on all these information, so you must know at all times what the members can do.

2. Support ClassNo matter what others tell you, you are a support class. In Clan Wars, in Nation Wars, in War channels, your job is to make sure that the party members are alive. There have been many situations where I saw wizards totally ignoring this side of the class thus contributing to the loss of their party / nation.You are a support class dear Wizard, let me retype that : A SUPPORT CLASS. Your job in TG for example is to keep the melee's buffed with Force Increase and Sharpness and Spirit Intension. Your job is to keep that warrior alive as much as possible while he slashes away the Resurrect tower. Give him Force Increase and he won't be Mana Frozen. Stay close to him and he will buff himself with Fury and Bloody Spirit. Buff him with Spirit Intension and Mass Restore and Restore and he will use Cats and become an invincible killing machine. Failure to do so will result in both of you dying from a lvl 160 FB that laughs in your face while he execrates and mana freezes you two and then goes BM for the kill.

3. Stay on your toesYou are a wizard, this means you WILL die. And if you are not careful, you will die a lot. The main reason why this happens is because most wizards are slowpokes. Your biggest advantage is mobility, your biggest disadvantage is low defense. Instead of trying to compensate for the disadvantage, make use of the advantage. It is far easier and better to move than to spend millions of alz on defensive gears.

4. Know when to retreatWhile playing a wizard, you have to be cunning. There's no shame in blinking around for 90 seconds until the Blader's BM2 runs out then going in for the kill. This is not an e-penis contest, so take advantage of it. You are the one to decide when the contact takes place, by stopping to fight. Make sure that all the odds are in your favor when you decide to challenge the rival (you are fully buffed, prepared, etc).

5. Be aware of the party statusThe most difficult and yet most rewarding ability that a wizard can have is awareness. This is what makes or breaks a good wizard. The ability to keep track of party member buffs is vital to your success as a group. You have to understand how each member plays, you have to ask them to change their style if it endangers the survival of the party, etc, you have to make swift decisions that will affect the outcome of the action.A good example of this is :

QUOTE

2 of your 7 party members died. The boss is at 30% HP, BM is almost running out, you have no SP to extend but SP buff is ready. Do you wait for the other 2 members to Cast SP and endanger the other 5 members, or do you cast it and hope that the boss will die without the 2 party members helping ?

Another good example :

QUOTE

On a spiker boss, the Warrior casts Cat's Recovery, thus preventing you to stack Mass Regen on him. Do you cast it and miss him or do you ask him to remove Iron Skin so he can use 2 Regens ?

6. BM'ing techniquesBM1 - Should be used in TG only, when being knocked out is likely to happen. Use it on resurrects that you want destroyed, use it in conjunction with Legacy Weapon and Amp/Flee pots, etc.BM2 - Should be used on Bosses, on mobs, while you sleep, when you shower, when there's no real threat nearby (like a stunner or downer), when you want maximum damage output. Even though people would advise BM1 in PF and MF when fighting enemies, I will show you how to fully use BM2, while ignoring other effects such as down. The only real danger would be a stun, but from my experience, the stun duration is not long enough to get you killed, so I kind of skip BM1.

KnockdownOn the first attack that the FS gives, I get up instantly, by spamming the ground with clicks. The direction in which you click will decide the direction in which you get up, so in TG, always click behind you, to go to safety, not get up in the middle of enemies.On the second attack, I stay on the ground for the whole duration of the down, almost 3 seconds, enough for him to hit me 3 times with normal attack.

AuraShould be used when you want an instant boost of defense + magic + CR/CD, for example when you see a higher level approaching your spot, and you do not have a 5 second time frame to go BM, then you pop-on Aura.

1. UpgradesThere are 5 mandatory upgrades that you must use as a Wizard : *Vitality Mastery *Force Control *Force Ruling *Sixth Sense *Damage Absorb

The only discussion that still remains unsolved is : Do I choose Defensive Sense (32def) or do I choose Reflex (532 def rate) ?

The answer is simple and it lies in the description of the class : The class with the lowest defense. Therefore, you should NOT try to compensate a lowest trait. That will take you nowhere. Instead, make use of advantages.32 defense is the same bonus that you earn by +7ing three of your martial equipment (3 x 12) and it will protect you from roughly 100 damage. This means that instead of being hit for 900, you now get hit for 800, while others get hit for 500. Gratz on your "wise" choice.

There is something called thresholds in Cabal, when it comes to Attack / Defense / Attack Rate / Defense Rate. This threshold is a specific value, a boundary, past which the effectiveness increases visibly. There are multiple thresholds or barriers to break, in terms of magic and defense, but the most important ones that I found are explained below.For Wizards, the thresholds that I have personally noticed (not 100% official, just my observations) are :

QUOTE

* 900 magic (past this point, your damage even in non-BM gets upgraded, most likely because the average defense of other chars is 800 - 900)* 850 defense (past 850 defense, your received damage gets much lower than at 840 for example)* 2800 defense rate (past this point, you get missed ... A LOT)

One short note about these thresholds : Do not try to replicate these values on any other class. Each class has its own boundaries. A warrior will immediately feel the difference between 1800 def rate and 2500, when a Blader might not. A Blader might need 4000+ to notice a real improvement, such as the warrior's.

My advice for all wizards that wish to achieve 170 is to use Reflex. Reflex, with Sixth Sense and osmium set and Defense rate rune will allow you to reach 2800 - 3000 defense rate. This in turn will mean that you get many misses.

The simple explanation to this is : Would you rather be hit 3 times out of 10 for 900 damage (with Reflex) or would you rather be hit 5 times out of 10 for 800 damage (with Defensive Sense) for the sole reason that you did not reach that threshold of protection ?It's 2700 dmg overall versus 4000 damage. Think about it.

These would be the first 12 you would need. Then, as you reach 170 and max out the pet level :

Remove EXP and Party XP and Pet XP, to free up 3 slots. I would use the STR / DEX / INT runes for 21 free stats. As the 13th rune, maybe I would pick the Resist Down, but it's discussable.From my experience, you will need the PartyXP first, the XP second (as it is more expensive) and this will boost your AP, as AP is part of your XP. With more AP, upgrade Def Rate and Attack Rate as 3rd and 4th, for better BM stats and higher survivability.

3. Skills - I will list the ones that are actually useful according to my playstyle.

Sword SkillsFade Step - Must have - This skill is vital when you want to break a chase by de-targeting yourselfDash - Must have - Dash will allow for the greatest mobility in Cabal in combination with Blink

No other sword skills are worthy of being acquired.

Magic SkillsNovice - Burning Hands - Could be useful, if put on the pvp bar, it allows for dashing and fade stepping in combo, due to its melee rangeNovice - Freeze - My main chest opener (it helps in FT1 where you open the 4 chests, there used to be a bug where you would hit all 4 and 1 drop would fall only, so you had to hit the chests 1 by 1)

I had some spare time and thought I'd try to find a BM2 bar that's suitable for most day to day activities in Cabal, and came up with these bars :PVE combo stunlock skills : GM 9 - Trans 9 - Stone 20 - Completer 9 will fit the BM2 bars also. For total damage output, I used my gear as comparison, in BM2 Aura versus Rota, but the results are valid for almost any other WI configuration out there.

As you can see, the best option would be to use AF in your BM2 bar, but that will grant you range 3 BM only.I decided to lose AF in order to gain a range 4 BM, due to TG, even if that means losing 5k damage overall.

For Ariadney and Ispita in FT2 or poorly dressed in TG, wizards with problems in surviving can use Option 3 as BM line-up, giving them a range 6 BM which will cripple their damage output by just 5%.

I know that with the introduction of Weak EoD, many players have started farming their orbs inside. Getting 40% Pherystins is not hard now, as well as 8/20 helms Bluestin or Titanium, which can be re-extended forever and ever until you get Rate in the last slot.

When you are in a dungeon you have to let SP flow. This means that when the SP timer is off, you must cast the yellow juice. This in turn means that when SP is cast, you must be safe for 1 minute and a half or fighting weak mobs/bosses if you got not-so-great gear.I will explain it with a picture

If you look at the above. Out of the 300 seconds timeframe between SPs, you got 90 seconds of dead time after SP is cast, if you are not 170 or 170 but playing with 2 HP buffs instead of 1.

90 Seconds after SP is cast, you have Morale or Force Increase on you and SP.90 Seconds before SP is cast, you MUST be careful to have casted Fury already. The reason for this is that if you cast Fury on SP debuff timer of 90, it's all good. As soon as Fury goes off, you can SP. If you Fury on SP debuff timer of 45 though, you will have to wait 45 seconds before casting SP. This will naturally push all other SP casts further away from the each 5 minutes mark, and thus, will slow you down.

I always advise my Warriors to cast 1 Fury right after SP, and 1 Fury on the next BM. Our 5 minutes of in-between BMs go like this :

Timer 300 : SP is castedTimer 255 : With 45 seconds of SP on, we go BM and attack the bossTimer 210 : The 90seconds of SP are off, we are at 50% of our BM, so Fury is castedTimer 165 : BM is blinking to cancel, so we extend. Fury still has 45 seconds left, so we turn on Aura for 45 more seconds as well.Timer 120 : Extended BM ran out. Mass restore is cast and we stay alive by comboing or going to a safe spot.Timer 90 : BM is ready again, we go BM and cast Fury on start of BM (if needed).Timer 0 : Fury is off, SP gets casted again, we extend the BM with Aura to have higher survivability while SP is on (so that we don't die with SP on and screw the dungeon)

Spiker Bosses will always be a nuisance for a Wizard. To make it easier for you, have Mass Restore and Restore available. On Spiker bosses, I usually cast Mass and Self Restore when reaching the boss, so as to have 90 seconds of 130HP regen per 2 seconds, in addition to the life leech and HP pots. This way it is close to impossible to die from their hits (unless all your party members get missed, but not even then). After regens are off, you will have to extend the BM anyhow, so the damage boost and defense boost will help you leech even more and thus keep you alive for longer.

2. Tough mobs

Move around until you manage to catch all of them in a cone in front of you. I will use my imba paint skills to demonstrate this :

If you manage to keep all mobs in the green area (at most they should be sideways, preferably in front cone though) then you are safe.The mobs from the yellow area will hit you once in a while, but get stunned by Comp and GMaster skills.The mobs from the red area, everything that's exactly behind your game character, will hit you without being affected by most skills (only Energy Field and Arctic would stop them from hitting you).

Make sure to keep all mobs in the green area, leave nothing behind you, as it will kill you and make you not leech as much as you could. It's true for BM2 as well as Combo mode.

Extra Notes:With all skills at level 20, the highest damaging in order are :

So I built our test BM2 bar with these skills, and started adjusting them. The test was on a 1300 magic, 50 rate, 180 cd, 40 amp Wizard in BM2, which is a common value for the WEoD wizards and most wizards in EU, versus 1400 Def Mob.

You might wonder : why didn't Ratza use the above BM2 bar since it's the one dealing the most damage ?Well, the answer is simple.

- I want to be able to use level 9 EDC / SC for PVE combo, non combo stunlock and TG- I want to use less than 11 skills in my BM2 bar, to have room for more lances for PVP and buffs- I want to cast Arctic as first skill, in order to position myself to the lowest range needed by all other skills.